National audience; This article focuses on the emergence of smart cities and problems in coordinating the activities of innovation in services in this area. In support of a major review of research on smart cities, the article compares the different visions of the smart cities concept promoted by literature. In particular, two visions are pointed out, but refuted here to understand smart cities in a more pragmatic way. After drawing up in the first part a typology of urban services intended to embody a city’s intelligence, the article highlights the key role of economic platforms in the development of urban services. In support of smart grids and mobility services, the article stresses in a second part that there is no direct transitivity between smart grids and smart cities. He then focuses on the example of the NFC (Near Field Communication), the contactless services currently undergoing various urban experimentations, to examine the role of ecosystem actors and their capacity to form the ecosystem’s economic platform. It concludes that none of the industrial players, private or public, has this capacity, as the territory appears to be the only cooperative framework capable of initiating collective innovation. A simplified reading, supported by the examples of French cities (Nice, Strasbourg, Bordeaux), of the technical and interactional processes necessary for the delivery of NFC urban services makes it possible to conclude on the key role of the territory in coordinating the actors in the ecosystem studied. The city, which is the owner of the economic platform (its urban services and its territory as a place of activity) necessary for the emergence of the ecosystem, is identified as the only key player capable of initiating a collective innovation dynamic.